The Greek government granted FYROM all that Skopje wanted for their language, identity and country name, as revealed by a letter from the US Embassy in Skopje dated July 29, 2008.

A few days after US Deputy Foreign Minister Wesse Mitchell’s statement that “US diplomacy played a central role in resolving the dispute between Greece and FYROM on the nomenclature“, the document published today by themanews.gr affirms those who suspected that after an active involvement of Washington, Athens was dragged to an agreement that meets all the requirements of the Skopje.

In a telegram entitled “What the ‘Macedonians’ want to solve the difference of name” and dated July 29, 2008, the then US Ambassador to Skopje Gillian Milovanovic describes Skopje’s demands to the State Department as they were presented during her talks Nikola Gruevski and Branko Crvenkovski, then Prime Minister and President of FYROM respectively.

“Embassy Skopje assesses that in the content of an agreement that clears the way for NATO membership and the start of EU accession talks, the ‘Macedonian’ government would ultimately accept the following terms:

-Name: Republic of Northern Macedonia (the English text refers to the neighboring country as “Northern” or alternatively “North Macedonia”).

– Field of application: In all international organizations but also bilaterally by any country does not want to use the constitutional name. ‘Macedonia’ will use its constitutional name when referring to itself, in passports, product labels, media, etc.

– Identity: Language and ethnicity could be called “Macedonian,” which should be done tacitly, perhaps as a supplement to the UNSCR, or in an internal UN document that will not need Greek approval. In conclusion, ‘Macedonia’ needs to be assured that their language and ethnicity would still be called Macedonian rather than North-Macedonian”.